I 
INCREASE. — Under the head of Nu¬ 
cleus several methods of forming nuclei 
are explained; but under this head the sub¬ 
ject will be dealt with more from the 
standpoint of the honey-producer who 
actually desires to increase and at the same 
time to produce some honey. One can di¬ 
vide up a strong colony into three or four 
nuclei; but in so doing he would probably 
destroy all his chances of securing a crop 
of honey, and at the same time would be 
almost sure to cause brood to die. It 
should always be borne in mind that the 
field bees will go back to the old stand. 
The nucleus left will necessarily have more 
than its proper proportion of bees on ac¬ 
count of old bees returning, while those 
moved to the other locations may have too 
few bees to take care of young brood. The 
loss of brood may be minimized to a great 
extent, if not entirely, by making only one 
division—that is, splitting the old colony 
into two parts. Most of the sealed brood 
and two-thirds of the bees are put into a 
hive on a new stand. The old hive is left 
with most of the unsealed brood, and one- 
third of the bees on the old stand. If the 
division is made in the morning on a warm 
day, all the old bees will go back to the 
old stand before night. This will leave 
the division of bees nearly equal. Each 
part should be left with a queen or a queen¬ 
cell. When both of the divisions have built 
up to full colonies the operation can be re¬ 
peated if the season is not too far ad¬ 
vanced. Other plans are described under 
Nucleus. 
The following is also a good plan that 
enables one to make a moderate increase 
as well as to secure a honey crop, provided 
there is a fall flow. It was practiced and 
recommended by one of the most extensile 
beekeepers in the United States, the late 
E. W. Alexander, who was recognized as an 
authority on general practical apiculture, 
for indeed his crops of honey went up into 
the carloads. He first made the plan pub¬ 
lic in 1905, after having tested it many 
years. So many favorable comments were 
received from beekeepers who had tried it 
and found it to be a success that it is given 
here with some slight modifications. 
When a colony is nearly full enough to 
swarm naturally, and it is desired to make 
two from it, lift it from its stand and put 
in its place a hive containing frames of 
comb or foundation the same as a hive for 
a swarm would be prepared. Remove the 
center comb from this new hive, and put in 
its place a frame of brood from the old hive, 
and be sure to find the queen and put her 
on this frame of brood in the new hive; also 
look it over carefully to see that it con¬ 
tains no eggs nor larvae in any queen-cells. 
If it does, destroy them. Put a queen-ex¬ 
cluding honey-board on top of this new hive 
that contains the queen and frame of brood 
with their empty combs, then set the full 
queenless colony over the excluder; next 
put in the empty comb or frame of founda¬ 
tion taken from the new hive and close the 
new hive except the entrance they have 
thru the excluder into the hive below. 
Leave them in this way about five days, 
then look over the combs carefully, and 
destroy any larvae in the queen-cells un¬ 
less they are of a good strain of bees, for 
they frequently start the rearing of queens 
above the excluder very soon after their 
queen was placed below the excluder. If 
so, they had better be separated at once; 
but if they have not started any queen- 
cells above then leave them together 10 
or 11 days, during which time the queen 
will get a fine lot of brood started in the 
lower hive, and every egg and particle of 
larva that was in the old hive on top will 
have matured, so it will be capped over and 
saved. Next separate them, putting the old 
hive on a new stand. It will then be full of 
young bees mostly, and capped brood, and 
in about 24 hours they will accept a ripe 
cell, a virgin, or laying queen, as they will 
then realize that they are hopelessly queen¬ 
less. I would advise giving them a laying 
queen, as I never like to keep mv full colo¬ 
nies without a laying queen for even a day 
longer than I can help. 
In this way it is possible to secure two 
strong colonies from one, without losing a 
